‘And you made all your money by stealing?’
‘No, I made a great deal of it by investing in the right properties. Mostly in London.’
A thought occurs to me. ‘So you stole the blue diamonds you gave me?’
‘No, I bought those.’
‘Why buy when you can just steal?’ I ask suspiciously.
‘There is a protocol attached to selling stolen jewelry. Pieces have to be broken down to their parts so they are unrecognizable. In fact, offloading rare gems will soon become impossible once they are laser printed with their own signature markers.’
‘How does Ebony come into the picture?’
‘I almost always work alone, but occasionally she will undertake some small part.’
‘So she’s not your girlfriend?’
‘For a while she was. For a very short while. It was a mistake. Pleasure and business don’t mix… You’re the first person I’ve ever told this to. I know it must be very hard for you to understand.’
‘I once stole a rocking horse from Mamas & Papas,’ I say quietly.
He frowns. ‘Why?’
‘At that time I couldn’t afford to buy it and I wanted it for my godson. I didn’t feel bad doing it—I knew that big companies like that have an allowance for pilferage. It didn’t have a security tag on it so I just picked it up and walked out with it.’
‘Ah, the most important trick of larceny. Bottle! The more blatant you are the more lawful it looks. Do it in broad daylight and carry a card that identifies you as a Fire Prevention Officer.’
‘So what happens now?’
‘I don’t know. Meeting you has confused me.’
‘Confused you how?’
‘I haven’t worked it out yet. Let’s just take it one step at a time, OK?’
‘OK,’ I say quietly, but joy is bubbling up inside me like a little fountain of water that has found its way from deep underground into the sunshine.
Twenty
We leave the island and arrive back in England late in the afternoon. It is raining—big fat drops of cold rain. Nothing could be more different from the place we have left behind. I feel a little sad and a little frightened. We did not have sex last night. We simply cuddled and fell asleep in each other’s arms. The truth is I wanted to have sex. I wanted it to be as though nothing had changed. I was afraid that something had changed. And I wanted back the carefree, wild way we had been.
Even after that first night something inside my body changed. Like he flicked a switch and everything I thought I was, everything I wanted, suddenly disappeared. And all that is left now is an aching hunger… Impossible to satisfy without him.
When we reach his house I realize that I am far more exhausted than I thought. Perhaps I am even a little depressed. I know now that I can’t just ride into the sunset with him. There are problems—big problems, maybe unsolvable ones. He undresses me, slips one of his T-shirts over my head and puts me to bed. Not in the white room, but in his bed in his bedroom. His room is very large and full of light that comes from the sky. I look around tiredly. It is a sumptuous room. Chocolate and cream and beautiful old paintings. I guess it’s a man’s room.
He puts me into bed and gently kisses my forehead.
‘Go to sleep,’ he tells me, the way an adult would instruct a child, the way I tell Sorab.
I close my eyes and almost immediately fall asleep.
I wake up alone. I don’t call out. I simply get out of bed and go looking for him. There is no one upstairs so I go down the magnificent marble steps. I wonder if a time will ever come when I will not be impressed by their beauty. The banister is cold and smooth under my hand. I hear a whirling sound, like the blades of a fan going very fast. I go toward the sound. It is coming from the room with all the gym equipment.
I open the door and Jaron is in the middle of the room. He is dressed only in a pair of faded, loose, knee-length shorts. He is skipping but he is going so fast that the rope is a blur. It is the rope that is making the sound. He is moving from foot to foot. The movements he makes are very graceful and light. You would never believe it of a man his size. I close the door and lean against it watching him. He stops and looks at my reflection in the mirrored wall.
‘What?’ he asks.
‘You don’t want to know,’ I say watching his back muscles gleam with a sheen of sweat.
He turns around and faces me. ‘Actually, I really do.’
‘I was thinking about licking the salt off your back.’
He throws the skipping rope on the ground.
‘That is usually a punishment I reserve for naughty girls. Have you been naughty recently?’
‘Yes, I was very naughty this morning.’